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“I suppose you’re wondering why you’re still alive,” he said to his three most important prisoners.
“We’re alive because you need us to keep up the façade,” the tall man said, apparently speaking for the others. “To pretend everything is smooth as silk here if anyone calls in. Which will happen soon and which we’re not going to help you to do.”
A smirk crossed Ji
“Paul, is it?”
“That’s right.”
It bothered Ji
Ji
The man let out a grunt of pain and surprise. He dropped straight down, hitting his chin on the rail as he fell. He bit a chunk from his lip, and blood filled his mouth.
“That’s better,” Ji
“You bastard,” the woman said.
“Ah, the loyal wife,” Ji
“You don’t need to do this,” Marchetti begged. “I’ll pay you for our release and the release of my crew. I can give you a fortune. I have millions, close to a hundred million in liquid assets, money that Matson and Otero don’t have access to. Just let us leave.”
“A long time ago I heard someone make a similar proposal,” Ji
Ji
“Are you sure about this?” Zarrina asked.
Ji
“What about the American satellites? If the effect is noticed, we’ll have bigger problems to deal with than these people from NUMA.”
“Otero has plotted the paths, altitudes and transits of every spy and weather satellite that crosses this section of the ocean. By directing the horde from here, we can signal them to rise and drop back at far more precise intervals than we could from Yemen. They will appear when no one is watching. They will disappear again before the eyes of the world ever turn their way.”
“Sounds complicated,” she said.
“Less so than you would think,” Ji
He looked to Otero. “How long is the current window?”
Otero checked his computer. “We have fifty-three minutes before the next satellite comes in range.”
“Then do as I command,” Ji
Otero nodded and brought up the control screen and typed in Ji
He hit the enter key. “Signal processing now.”
Ji
There had been no wind to speak of throughout the day, and the sea was glassy around them. But as the bots surfaced, the smooth appearance took on a grainy look, like a secluded bay choked with algae.
Ji
“Direct them to spread their wings.”
Otero began tapping away once again. “Order encoded,” he said. “Transmitting … now.”
Ji
A wave seemed to travel through it, almost like a tremor. The color went from a leaden gray to a dull gloss and then began to brighten until the sea around them shimmered with a mirrorlike finish. With the afternoon sun still high overhead, the effect was blinding even through the shield of polarized glass.
Ji
Ji
Out on the surface of the sea, trillions upon trillions of his tiny machines had unfolded mirrored wings, hidden until then under shells like those on the back of a beetle. The act tripled the surface area of each microbot. The reflective surface of the wings quadrupled the amount of sunlight bounced back into the upper atmosphere and away from the ocean.
It was as if a reflective blanket had been pulled across five thousand square miles of the Indian Ocean.
Gamay made the co
“The temperature change,” she said. “This is how it’s being done.”
“Yes,” Ji
“You’re insane. You’ll kill millions of people.”
“The famine will kill them,” he corrected.
She fell silent. Neither of the other two spoke. All three of them kept their eyes turned away from the blazing reflection.
Ji
“You’ll never get away with this,” Paul said.
“And just who is going to stop me?”
“My government, for one,” Paul added. “The Indian government, NATO, the UN. No one is going to let you starve half a continent. Your little force here won’t last long against a squadron of F-18s.”
Ji